Gaffney junior QB Grayson Loftis surprisingly expects to wrap up recruiting within a month

It would be easy to imagine Gaffney quarterback Grayson Loftis being able to use a big individual performance in Saturday's Class AAAAA state championship game against Dutch Fork as a further springboard in his recruiting as he heads into his final season.

Putting up gaudy statistics against a program that has recently dominated the state and even adding "state championship winning quarterback" to his resume would certainly draw plenty of eyeballs to a junior prospect already holding a handful of offers.

But Loftis has an entirely different approach in store and at this time surprisingly plans to have his recruitment concluded and a commitment made by mid-January and possibly sooner.

"The plan right now is to have this kind of wrapped up in late December, early January and that way the senior year is fully focused on getting back to the state championship," Loftis said.

Of course there's always the opportunity to withdraw a commitment, but the earnest and humble Loftis sure sounds like the kind of guy intent on making his decision early and standing by it.

It's still a very unique approach when he'll have a full year of being able to bolster his status, likely adding double-digit scholarship offers moving forward. The vast majority of teenagers would simply look to pad their offers to gain clout or simply to satisfy their ego. Players who do commit well before the start of their senior season typically are those in rarified air of holding 20-plus offers from blueblood programs or have a dream school where they don't feel a need to wait to announce once they're offered.

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It doesn't sound like Loftis has a dream school although the South Carolina native has been a Clemson fan since birth -- he jokes he was put into a Tigers' onesie from infancy with his aunt and uncle being graduates. And he holds just five offers from Kentucky, West Virginia, Appalachian State, Marshall and Charlotte.

Loftis has not heard from Clemson or South Carolina as he's gone through the recruiting process with his parents.

"We've always said when a school feels right to us we'll go ahead and commit," he said. "We'll rock with that school and be there for four years. If we do get to the date we're kind of setting and don't feel we're ready to make a decision we can always extend it. That's kind of the beauty of being recruited like this is you have the time to make that decision when you want to.

"We also don't want to draw it out just to see how many offers we can get and all that. We want to find a home and commit and that way the school knows we're fully committed to the school and they are are fully committed to us. We're still 100 percent open, and if anything else comes along we'll evaluate it and make a decision."

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His recruitment process began some time ago while at his former school -- Blue Ridge -- when current undefeated No. 1 Georgia offered in the summer prior to his freshman season (he's currently in his first year at Gaffney). Loftis was offered by a previous assistant before the Bulldogs brought in a new offensive coordinator and assistants prior to the 2020 season.

"We haven't heard anything out of the new offensive coordinator and offensive staff that had been brought in," Loftis said. "As of right now we're still working to get that offer regained."

After the pandemic shut down the college coaches' camp circuit in 2020, Loftis was able finally to hit the road this past summer and participate in camps at Georgia, Wake Forest, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Duke and Appalachian State. He also attended games at Kentucky, Duke and Appalachian State and visited Michigan State.

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He has scheduled to visit West Virginia later this month and is in the process of setting up a few more into next month.

Loftis said he's thought some about what a successful showing in the state title game against a program that has won a state-record five consecutive AAAAA championships and has appeared in nine of the past 10 championship games could mean as far as his individual resume. Even in the short term if he keeps to his short timetable toward committing.

"It's always kind of in the back of your mind to be on that stage and have that opportunity, but ultimately if you don't come away with the win it doesn't mean a whole lot," Loftis said. "I don't think even if we go out and have four or five touchdowns or 300 yards, if we come up short people aren't going to remember that."

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Loftis' longtime quarterback coach, Ramon Robinson, who is the founder of Elite Position Training in addition to his self-named Elite Quarterback Academy for which he serves as the main teacher and leader, agrees the state championship won't have a huge effect on recruiting.

"I think it's more about his overall body of work," Robinson said. "Just being able to add a state championship to his resume will be more of a personal and school goal as opposed to does that carry any weight when it comes to whether he gets 10 or 15 more offers. I don't think it changes a whole lot."

Loftis (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) isn't yet nationally ranked by either 247Sports or Rivals although the latter outlet has him as 2023's seventh-best player in state. He's coming off a year leading Gaffney to a 13-0 record after completing 141 of 247 passes for 1,902 yards and 18 touchdowns with six interceptions.

The Indians, who average 36.3 points and 350.5 yards per game, have run the ball 172 more times than they've thrown it. Five players have at least 14 receptions and four have topped 290 receiving yards.

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"When he first came he just had the instincts as far as his leadership skills," Gaffney coach Dan Jones said. "And around Gaffney, you'd better have talent to go with that or they don't listen to you for long. He displayed that talent with his arm strength and accuracy and any time you're a receiver if a guy pulling the trigger back there can get you the ball certainly you fall in love with him pretty quick."

Robinson called Loftis "a complete quarterback and I've seen him grow from the physical to the mental. He went to a 5A program and wanted to show everyone he could play with the big boys and I think he's done that. I knew that before he left the other program because he just has that leadership, that eye of the tiger and has ice in his veins. He's that guy."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Gaffney 2023 QB Grayson Loftis expects to put early end to recruitment